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Sixty per cent said the TTC is good or excellent value for money. Just 38% felt a strong sense of pride about their transit system.

The results come as the TTC continues to post record ridership numbers, moving about 504 million people in the past 12 months, which is about 20 million more than at the same time last year.

“There is still lots to do, but on the whole a 76 out of 100, it’s not world class, but it’s not bad,” said Chris Upfold, the TTC’s chief customer service officer.

One way the TTC could make life easier for customers, he said, is by introducing debit and credit payment systems at collector booths.

Karen Stintz, the TTC chair, is pleasantly surprised by some reviews, and pleased in particular with the safety rating, but she acknowledged that the commission has work to do to improve customer service. “Particularly for people who travel around the world, they see other systems and how they’ve modernized and then they come back and they see how in some cases our system hasn’t kept up,” she said.

But the high marks could slip once tunnelling for the partially underground Eglinton Crosstown light rail line begins this summer. The looming traffic headaches around intersections where stations will be built came up at a TTC meeting on Tuesday.

Transit officials say the only way to build underground stations is by using a “cut and cover” method that rips up the road and puts some lanes out of commission.

TTC chief capital officer Sameh Ghaly said each station will take about two and a half years to build, but the plan is to stagger construction, so that about three locations are undergoing work at once. All told, the impact to neighbourhoods will last about seven years, he said.

Councillor Josh Colle, a transit commissioner, said the TTC must do a better job of communicating to residents and motorists why the LRT “is good news, and not just a traffic nuisance.”

‘It’s not world class, but it’s not bad’

Metrolinx, the regional transit authority, is building the Crosstown, from Black Creek Drive to Kennedy Station, along with three other light rail lines on Finch, Sheppard and the Scarborough RT. Up until now the TTC has been the project manager, although the task might pass into the hands of Infrastructure Ontario.

Meanwhile, an advocacy group for TTC riders expressed fears on Tuesday that revised timelines for the Sheppard East line will “open the door to more political interference.” Construction on the line broke ground in 2009, then ground to a halt in 2011 on orders from Mayor Rob Ford. The revised plan calls for Metrolinx to complete the Sheppard line by 2018, instead of the original 2014.

“What language will Metrolinx put into agreements with the City of Toronto to ensure that this plan is built to completion and not sidetracked again by politics?” Jamie Kirkpatrick, a representative of TTC riders, wrote to Metrolinx chairman Robert Prichard.

In a written response, Metrolinx said it is in the process of meeting with Toronto’s city manager to complete and sign agreements for the four lines.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/01/despite-reservations-toronto-transit-riders-give-ttc-high-marks-for-service/feed/1stdThe TTC got high marks for safety, though riders were less impressed with wait times and crowds jostling for seats.TO0502-TTCThe TTC’s not perfect, but customer service chief Chris Upfold thinks it can be fixedhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/21/the-ttcs-not-perfect-but-customer-service-chief-chris-upfold-thinks-it-can-be-fixed/
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It’s cold in Dundas West subway station just before 5 p.m. as Chris Upfold, the TTC’s chief customer service officer, picks up a newspaper and tosses it into the recycling bin. Upfold, 38, has been in his position for the past seven months and has become something of a transit celebrity. Originally from Guelph, Upfold spent a decade working on the subway system in London, and it’s his job to listen to the complaints of the riders who take 500 million trips on the TTC every year.

“It’s exciting,” says Upfold, who still speaks with a trace of an English accent. “When the system works, it’s forgettable, and when it doesn’t, it can ruin your whole day. But the TTC is central to Toronto. When people hear where I work, no one ever says, ‘What’s that?’ ”

The Toronto Transit Commission brings in a billion dollars annually in fares and receives an additional $450-million from the city. With more than 12,000 employees and 1.7 million people using the service each day, there are plenty of opportunities for the system, and its attendants, to screw up. In September, a bus driver was allegedly found to be in possession of marijuana after a fatal crash on Lawrence Avenue, and it seems like everyone saw the photo of the TTC attendant caught snoozing at the McCowan station in January 2010. Upfold doesn’t make excuses for these errors. In fact, he’s quick to say elements of the service fundamentally need change.

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“For lots of reasons, the TTC has exhausted all of its goodwill. People make mistakes, but we need to build up that goodwill again,” says Upfold, who has arrived at Dundas West station for an hour-long “Meet the Manager” discussion, a weekly meeting between riders and the TTC brass — including the new CEO, Andy Byford.

Watching the riders interact with the transit officials, you can see fairly quickly that the average TTC patron just wants to get home. A man complains that a train ticket is too expensive; a woman asks about the Red Rocket bike racks; and an older lady tells Upfold that she thinks the way the TTC staff is portrayed in the media is deplorable. Throughout it all, Byford, who was a general manager at the London Underground before becoming chief operating officer of the transit system in Sydney, snaps photographs of the trash and graffiti he spots around the station. Byford, who was in part recruited by Upfold, says his lieutenant is the right man for the job.

“As part of my senior team, his role is deliberately light in terms of line management so that he can drive forward the customer agenda with me and deliver the recommendations of the customer service panel,” says Byford, who mentions that Upfold takes the TTC every day, always wearing his name tag so that riders can approach him to compliment the service or, more likely, to complain. “He’s an easygoing guy and has a pretty thick skin, which is needed in this line of work. Chris is a family man who likes a beer after work on a Friday — an excellent habit that he picked up while working in London.”

At Dundas West, Upfold approaches riders when a crowd is slow to assemble. In addition to monthly Meet the Manager meetings, Upfold also hosts quarterly Town Hall discussions that can draw up to 500 people, and has grown the TTC’s presence on Twitter (@TTCnotices) to include 26,000 followers. With his wife, Becky, who he met while working in London, employed by Metrolinx, the Upfold family is pretty much entirely devoted to transit. The couple live near Bloor and Bathurst and, the way Upfold tells it, will help usher in an entirely new era of public transportation by the time Toronto welcomes the 2015 Pan Am Games.

“I don’t think we want to explain how tokens work in 2015,” says Upfold, by way of introducing transit’s long-overdue Presto project, which will finally give Torontonians a credit card-style fare payment system. “A transit system is an easy-to-blame entity and that’s why I’m hear to listen, but I know that the TTC needs to make changes — it’s not just about listening. We have to do stuff, as well.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/21/the-ttcs-not-perfect-but-customer-service-chief-chris-upfold-thinks-it-can-be-fixed/feed/1stdChris UpfoldBe it resolved: Resolutions for the city of Toronto and its peoplehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/31/be-it-resolved-resolutions-for-the-city-of-toronto-and-its-people/
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What will 2012 hold for Toronto? Will we see more service cuts, higher property taxes and a playoff berth, maybe, for the Maple Leafs? We all have our own visions for the city, both what we like and what we’d like to see changed immediately. In the spirit of new beginnings and in the age-old tradition of starting over, we asked some of our favourite local personalities what resolutions they’d like the city to adopt in the new year.

Cory FreedmanFounder, Toronto Women’s Runs
“Toronto should have better infrastructure to support those of us wanting to lead an active lifestyle. This means more running/walking paths, trails and way more bike lanes. Ideally, all paths in parks would be well-lit so that they are safe and accessible, and it couldn’t hurt if motorists were more tolerant of those of us running in a race on city streets. Get out of your car and cheer us on. It would be more fun than sitting there and honking at us!”

Gary TaxaliArtist
“See more art. The rest of the country (and world) knows it: Toronto’s art and design scene is nothing short of brilliant. We have it all: Talented emerging artists showing in cool spaces off the beaten path all the way to professional and municipal galleries and museums highlighting culturally relevant shows and happenings. You don’t even need to make a great effort, it’s all right there as soon as you step outside your door.”

Damian AbrahamMusician
“If I could have the city resolve to change one thing it would be to make it mandatory for the mayor to take public transit to and from work every day.”

Kardinal OffishallRapper
“As a city, we’ve been plagued to look for a saviour. We need to go back to what resurrected Toronto in the ’90s: Every person in the city should do for ’self! Make your own waves. Make your own paths, and don’t look for someone to put you on. In 2012, be your own man.”

Matt GallowayRadio host
“I’d like Toronto to feel like it has the freedom to celebrate itself. We’ve had more than a year of hearing what’s wrong with our town from all sides of the political spectrum. Now is the time to show some love and stand up for our city.”

Chris UpfoldChief customer service officer, TTC
“I want Toronto to feel proud of the TTC again and help the TTC feel proud of itself. I often describe Toronto as a ‘city of front porches’ and a ‘city of neighbourhoods’ — it’s a hugely livable city and, to me, that’s what sets it apart from London or New York. It’s the TTC that interconnects and links all of those great neighbourhoods together and makes Toronto feel like the city it is — a city with a heart and soul. The TTC is absolutely fundamental to the prosperity of Toronto and is one of the few spots that people of all races, creeds and social strata interact — the very measure of a modern major city. The steps we take next year to begin to re-establish that pride will be a critical component of what the TTC can once again become and what it can mean to the city of Toronto.”

Doug FordCity councillor
“In these tough economic times I think that we all need to set priorities. We need to hold our governments accountable to delivering on the core services that matter most in a sustainable and responsible way.”

Kenny HotzActor10. Stop serving home fries for breakfast, paprika is not a spice! Why the @#$% is McDonald’s the only place serving hash browns?9. Dear bus driver: If you see someone running for the bus wait an extra three seconds so they can get on. People have to get to work or school … so they don’t end up being bus drivers.8. Take the aluminum siding off the ROM, it doesn’t look like an iceberg, it looks like a trailer home built by a redneck on acid.7. We need to start serving wine and beer in variety stores. Then we can use the liquor stores as shelters for the drunks who hang around them.6. Improv jazz is not suitable music to play in every restaurant. It’s torture, no one likes it. Go back to playing the Gypsy Kings, it’s a little less horrible.5. Just because you ride a bicycle doesn’t mean you are better than drivers, it only means you can’t afford a car.4. It’s time to take off those “LIVE STRONG” bracelets. They’re made out of chemicals and cause cancer. Oh well, that’s what you get for wearing a yellow bracelet for ﬁve years …3. There is no reason for us to be bilingual in Toronto — nobody here speaks French! Mandarin should be our sister tongue, and the sooner we accept it, the more cash we’ll make.2. Bury the Gardiner Expressway. It makes Toronto look like it should be in the opening titles of Sanford and Son. Seriously, the joke’s over: Ditch that eyesore so we can get an Olympics!1. Elect a mayor that’s going to make Toronto the greatest international premier city of the world, elect me!

Mike “Pinball” ClemonsFootball legend
“Not infrastructure, but bone structure … smiles! As one of the most signiﬁcant ﬁnancial centres on the planet, we excel at building, buying and selling. However, typical of all mankind, it’s our heart that will determine our health. Nothing can make us better, we have them in abundance! Love, not a lottery; respect, not retail prowess; hope, not a handout. This is our future. An epidemic of love and human kindness has the power to radically alter the way the balance of the country sees us. More importantly, we can change the way we see ourselves!”

Lesli GaynorOwner, Mitzi’s Sister
“Close the gap between those who have and those who have not. Give people a voice. I’m not saying that people should occupy public spaces, but people need to have choice and we need change — in 2012, we need to address the core issues.”

Bruce LaBruceFilmmaker1. Turn all luxury condo presentation centres into affordable housing units.2. Heartless conservatism should no longer be considered fashionable. Kevin O’Leary should be forced to live in Attawapiskat for the entire year. He could practise his own austerity and help the First Nations people organize their ﬁnances.3. As one of the ugliest major metropolises in the world, Toronto should court more interesting architects to build cutting-edge buildings that will yield dividends in the long-term rather than spending all its time and energy building hideous glass tower cookie-cutter structures that have no longevity.4. More bicycle lanes and places to lock bikes. It’s ridiculous how di∞cult it is to ﬁnd a place to lock your bike in certain parts of the city.5. Oust the Fords.

Nina ArsenaultPerformance artist
“Everyone has to get as much breath into their bodies as possible through exercise, singing, athletics, yoga, meditation or whatever works for you. Having more breath will give you more empathy, more sensuality, more lightness, more brilliance, more outside-the-box thinking, more ferocity, more love, more libido, more stillness. You will have more life. Life will be more.”

Leslie FeistMusician
“From their side, the Mega Quarry situation is black and white and absolutely about proﬁt. But from our side, the people outside of the very narrow proﬁt margin, it’s about heritage, culture, community and the environment. I’m proud this is an issue people in Toronto are adopting and owning as their own. Most of us opposing this mine aren’t scientists, but you don’t need to be a scientist to understand the obvious harm caused by this kind of operation. No pit-mine issued study will be objective or impartial enough to be reliable. Why not leave well enough alone and let the scales tip in favour of balanced community?”

Carlyle JansenOwner, Good For Her
“Enough with: ‘My labia aren’t right’; ‘My penis isn’t the right shape and size.’ Toronto should enjoy and celebrate their bodies as they are in this moment. Don’t endure, celebrate and enjoy.”

The TTC is vowing to improve the transit experience with a new customer liaison panel and regular town hall meetings that bring riders face to face with top officials.

The transit authority will also expand the hours of its customer service centre, and extend a program that lets women request a bus stop between the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. to anyone who feels unsafe.

TTC Chair Karen Stintz and new customer service officer Chris Upfold made the announcement Thursday morning at Bathurst Station, amid budget cuts that will surely make riders more annoyed with transit. To balance the books, the TTC will reduce the frequency of some buses, making them more crowded.

“Our budget constraints are real,” said Ms. Stintz. “That being said there are many aspects of the rider experience that our customers feel … customer service is an ongoing process and these initiatives take us one step further.”

Mr. Upfold is looking for eight customers who are “passionate” about making the TTC better to sit on the panel, along with two members of the transit commission, the chief general manager, a member of the accessibility committee and the chair of the since dismantled customer service advisory committee that was first struck to deal with a wave of unhappy riders. It made 78 recommendations, of which 20 will be implemented by year end.

One of the panel’s first tasks will be reviewing fare practices at the TTC, such as emergency transfers, said Mr. Upfold, who joined the TTC from the London Underground four months ago. The customer service centre will remain open longer, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. now to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“Additionally we’re committing to get back to our customers if they’ve asked us to,” said Mr. Upfold.

You haven’t really seen unsatisfied public transit customers until you’ve seen the London Underground at rush hour on a bad day. Many passengers seem less angry than … haunted. Not that Brits don’t know how to complain about public transit — they’re excellent at it — but in situations where New Yorkers would vent fury and Torontonians would commiserate, many Londoners seem to ponder their deepest doubts and fears.

Many years ago, crammed solid into a sweltering Tube train — lack of air conditioning has always been part of the charm — I heard a particularly demoralizing announcement: “Attention,” it said. “Oxford Circus station is closed.” (A rough Toronto equivalent would be: “Attention: St. George station is closed.”)

There was a giant, sorrowful, unsurprised exhale, and then much doleful staring into space. Tortured, disembodied thoughts seemed to float through the car. “My wife’s going to leave me.” “We can’t afford private school anymore.” “Oh, why did I leave my little Welsh village? I was happy there.”

All of which is to say the Toronto subway should be a relative breeze for Chris Upfold, the Ontario native who’s leaving the Tube to become the TTC’s first chief customer service officer. The “customer service crisis” that gripped the city a year ago has already come off the boil, perhaps for lack of any cluster of high-profile breakdowns. And incident management, too, seems to have improved markedly. When a driver’s caught texting-and-driving, for example, there’s less philosophical waffle from management and the union about whether it’s “appropriate” or “constructive” to snap a photo of him and more straight-up condemnation, which is all people want.

More good news: Many of the TTC’s problems are so simple, other cities solved them decades ago. As a welcome home gift, then, here are a few customer-service ideas — some serious, some less so — Mr. Upfold might consider:

More information There can never be enough. This is already getting better, thanks to real-time next vehicle arrival technology, platform screens and customizable e-mail service advisories (by text message would be better, though). Rocket science it isn’t, but the worst thing about a transit foul-up is having no idea what’s going on. Waiting 20 minutes for a streetcar that literally isn’t coming can ruin your day faster than a cystoscopy.

Smart cards Please. For the love of God. It’s 2011. My personal TTC approval rating bottoms out on freezing cold winter nights when, leaving the National Post bunker, I trudge 10 minutes out of my way to buy tokens, find the convenience store is out of tokens, ask the nice lady for change, pay 50¢ extra to get on the bus, and then wake up the next morning still out of tokens. Hopefully Mr. Upfold will lend his voice to the campaign to free us of this antediluvian madness. No more en route coffee breaks for streetcar and bus drivers It’s unprofessional, and everyone knows it.

Cell phone signals underground Mr. Upfold told the Post’s Natalie Alcoba this week that when customers have things to occupy their eyes — he used the example of advertising — they perceive time as passing quicker. Makes sense. I suspect most people, however, would prefer to catch up on emails or read the Post using its excellent mobile applications than stare blankly at a Republic of Doyle poster. An Australian firm is paying New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority $46-million to wire that city’s subway stations for phone and Wi-Fi signals.

Start a “smaller strollers” campaign I’m not sure when or why baby carriages tripled in size, or why any parent would choose to ride the bus (to say nothing of the streetcar) with the pram equivalent of a Hummer, but I have to believe everyone would be happier with some modest downsizing.

Don’t treat the TTC Customer Service Advisory Panel report as gospel There are a lot of good ideas in there, but also some very weird ones — most notably a preoccupation with the TTC’s “brand” and the idea of padding out bus schedules so drivers can “offer enhanced assistance to customers with additional needs … or wait for passengers who are running to catch the vehicle.” A thousand times, no!

Thankfully, Mr. Upfold seems to understand the most basic element of “customer service,” which is getting people from A to B on time. That’s “definitely a big part” of the equation, he told Ms. Alcoba. To many people, I suspect it’s just about everything.

Partly because of his ties to Toronto, partly because of his job at the London Tube, Chris Upfold kept a close eye on the customer service storm that gripped the TTC last year. Soon, he will be in the thick of it. The TTC announced Monday that Mr. Upfold, a Walkerton, Ont. native who has held a variety of customer service posts at the London Underground over the last decade, will be its first chief customer service officer. He starts May 30, earning between $117,772 to $147,183. Mr. Upfold, 37, believes Toronto’s transit system has got a bit of a bad rap lately — “if you are pushing huge amounts of people through pipes in the ground, that’s a tough thing to do” — but he says there are ways to improve riders’ experience. An excerpt of his conversation with the Post’s Natalie Alcoba follows.

QWhat was the No. 1 lesson you learned at the Tube?

A You’ve got to figure out a way to measure customer satisfaction and make it a hard and fast number, and put in place the business-case stuff where you can show that improving customer service actually helps your bottom line in a lot of ways… If you don’t measure it, you can’t change it.

QHow much of customer service is simply ensuring that the trains arrive on time?

A It’s definitely a big part of it. If you don’t run an on-time service, then customers aren’t going to care very much. You’ve got to get the basics right. Doesn’t mean it’s easy to do but you’ve got to have that bare bones operational stuff. There’s also quantity of time, versus quality of time. If you provide a quality service, then people will be more forgiving on the quantity stuff.

Q So it changes their perception of the amount of time they’re spending?

A Absolutely. The best example I can think of is that we have a lot more advertising in the London Underground than the TTC has. And part of that is because it generates revenue, and it gives us money to invest in other things. But it’s also because our customers like it. It gives them something to read. And we know that stations that have advertising have a lower perceived quantity of time. And it also proves to people that somebody is in control. Because the advertising is up to date. It’s clearly being replaced, it’s clearly being looked at, there’s a guiding mind here.

Q Do you think the TTC could use more advertising, then?

A I don’t think that’s what I’m saying. I guess I was just saying that people only think about advertising as revenue generation, but actually there is a customer benefit there that is a bit more ephemeral. And that is true of a lot of things that you do. Having a ticket-selling booth that is a controlled space, that doesn’t have notices taped to it, that is clean —that helps you sell tickets and it helps you do your job more effectively, but it also gives customers the perception that somebody is in control.

Q What can TTC riders expect to see change in the short term?

A Any change like this people think is easy, but it’s an organizational change, and that’s a three- to five-year plan. So in the short term, what I think is important is that I focus on making sure that when people take time out of their day to contact the TTC about something — send an email, telephone somebody, or just tell somebody in the station — that that is taken account of, and it’s systemized, and there’s a way of capturing that, capturing the scale of it, making sure that everybody in the organization knows what customers are talking about. And if you can get that link, that everybody is thinking about what customers care about, then that already starts to put you on the right path where other things become possible.

The Toronto Transit Commission has hired a London Tube executive to be its first chief customer service officer.

Chris Upfold has held a variety of positions at the London Underground in the last decade, most recently as head of revenue and inclusion for planning and developing improvements focused on customer satisfaction. He also headed up the London Underground Customer Experience department, during which it saw a “marked increase” in rider satisfaction, according to the TTC (read the full press release). Mr. Upfold, a Canadian, will start his new job on May 30.

The TTC has turned his attention to boosting customer service after a spike in complaints and public backlash over a sleeping collector last year. It struck an advisory panel, which recommended that it hire a chief customer service officer, among a host of other measures.